1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present disclosure pertain to an intelligent agent in a data-processing system that indicates whether a user should answer or return an incoming telephone call.
2. Background Art
Telemarketers place telephone calls to market products or services. To avoid these calls, people screen incoming telephone calls using caller identification (caller ID) services that display a telephone number of the calling party.
Some telephones further identify a calling party based on a locally-stored electronic phone book. If the electronic phone book does not include a telephone number corresponding to the calling party, the telephone might not be able to identify the calling party. That is, the telephone might display merely the telephone number of the calling party.
Further, if the electronic phone book accurately reflects a person's knowledge, then a telephone number unknown to the electronic phone book is also unknown to the person. To address that situation, some websites offer reverse telephone number lookup services.
To further assist in that situation, telephone comments websites have been developed. Such websites log user comments regarding particular phone numbers. Some comments on those websites pertain to the telephone numbers used by telemarketers.
Further, it has been proposed to block telephone calls if a system determines a driver of a vehicle is too busy with a critical driving task.